Did I Mention I Won The Lottery? (24 page)

‘I had to ask
someone Daniel and he was the only one I could think of. I took the
papers to him and…’

Daniel’s hand
shot out and grabbed hold of Rebecca’s wrist.

‘Papers. What
papers?’

Rebecca tried
to pull her arm away. ‘The ones from the study, I took them
to…’

‘You’ve been in
my study?’

His grip was
tightening and Rebecca was pulling furiously trying to free
herself.

‘No Daniel,’
she spat, ‘Actually I went into my study and took papers about a
company you want to buy with my money so that I could ask someone
who knows what they’re talking about whether it was actually a good
investment.’

Suddenly her
wrist was free but only because Daniel’s hand was raised in the
air, his fist clenched and his eyes burning with rage.

Rebecca jumped
up and faced him square on.

‘Do you really
think I’m just going to hand over millions so that you can get
revenge on someone who didn’t give you promotion Daniel. Do you
really think I’m that stupid?’

The fist came
down but Rebecca was too quick. She stepped backwards knocking her
chair over in his path and he stumbled against the table. The pause
seemed to bring him back to his senses. He brought his arm down
quickly by his side and for a moment Rebecca saw a fleeting look of
shame cross his face. But it was only fleeting

‘I knew you
didn’t want me to have any money,’ he snarled. ‘All these excuses,
all these stupid excuses. That’s why you didn’t tell me in the
first place, you were trying to hide it from me.’

The guilt
arrived, a great wave of it.

‘You’re wrong
Daniel. Believe me you’re wrong,’ Rebecca picked up the chair and
sat back down. ‘I don’t begrudge you any of the money. But you’re
not looking at anything else we might want to do. You’re not
looking at any other arrangements we might want to make. You’re so
determined to buy White's you haven’t thought about anything
else.’

Daniel raised
his eyebrows disdainfully.

‘What the hell
are you talking about. What other arrangements? What else do we
need to do?’

‘Well there’s
the children for one thing,’ started Rebecca, ‘trust funds and
tuition fees and ...’

Another shout
of disbelieving laughter. ‘Trust funds. TRUST FUNDS! Are you
barking mad. You won some money Bec, you didn’t win a bloody title.
What the hell do you want with a trust fund?’

‘We need to
look after our children, we can take the pressure away from them by
paying off the student loans and I don’t want them to have to wait
until we die to get some money Daniel.’

‘Why not?
Everybody else has to. Nobody gave me a trust fund when I was their
age.’

‘That’s because
your parents didn’t have the money,’ snapped Rebecca. ‘If they’d
had 15 million pounds in the bank I’m sure they would have sent
some your way!’

Daniel leaned
on the table, pushing his face close to Rebecca’s own. ‘Are you
seriously telling me that you’re planning on giving the kids a pile
of our money. You don’t want me to buy White's because you want to
give it all to a couple of kids who should be out there earning
their own living?’

Rebecca refused
to flinch. ‘Yes I am.’

‘And how much
exactly were you planning on putting in this trust fund?’

‘£250,00 each
when they reach 25 and a further million each when they reach
30.’

For a moment
Rebecca truly believed that Daniel was going to have a heart
attack. His face changed from puce to grey in a second and he
gasped standing upright and stumbling slightly.

‘Are you mad?’
he whispered, staring at her as though he had never seen her
before. Are you completely mad?’

‘No. I…’

‘ARE YOU
FUCKING MENTAL!’

Rebecca did
flinch this time.

‘You want to
give two perfectly healthy children millions of pounds. What for.
So they can sit on their arses and never do a stroke of work again?
Are you totally stupid?’

Rebecca stared
at him, her eyes almost as angry as his own.

‘Can you hear
yourself?’ she asked in disbelief. ‘These are your children we’re
talking about. And you want me to do what? Sit in a huge house
while they hold down 2 jobs each to pay their way through
university because you won’t help them. Go on exotic holidays while
they sit in a grungy bed sit wondering if they can afford to eat?
Listen to what you’re saying Daniel.’

He took a step
back. ‘They won’t starve,’ he grumbled. ‘But they need to learn the
value of money, they need to work, they need to earn their own
money.’

‘They will
work, that’s why I’m not giving it all to them straight away. But I
will not sit by and watch my children struggle when I could help
them. I simply won’t do it Daniel.’

‘Well they
don’t need that much,’ he compromised. ‘Change it to something
less.’

‘No.’

Rebecca
couldn’t remember the last time she had used that word so often in
one day.

‘I will
not.’

His face
darkened again. ‘They are not having all that money.’

Rebecca stood
up and set off towards the door, pausing as she opened it and
turning round to meet Daniel’s eyes.

‘I think there
is one thing you really need to remember in this whole debate
Daniel. This is my money and I will decide what to do with it. The
children get their trust funds,’ she turned to leave then paused.
‘Oh, and just in case I haven’t made myself abundantly clear, I am
not selling the house and I am not going back to Darlington,’ and
she left, closing the door firmly behind her.

He let her go
although not for long and the arguments raged on for most of the
day - in the hallway, on the staircase, in every room of the house
until almost hoarse with shouting Daniel finally stormed out
slamming the door so hard Rebecca expected it to fly off its
hinges.

Sitting in the
kitchen she poured herself a glass of wine and with a slightly
shaking hand took a long drink. It was so long since she had stood
up to Daniel, really stood up to him about anything remotely
important that the effort had drained her. The phone rang and with
a sigh Rebecca reached over and picked it up.

‘Hello?’

‘Rebecca it’s
me. Look, I had to phone and apologise, Emma and I are both so
sorry.’

‘Helen! Sorry
about what exactly?’

‘Lunch -
leaving so early- not so much leaving as running!’

Rebecca
couldn’t help the smile. ‘It’s not a problem Helen, I would have
gone with you if I could! I really don’t know what got into Daniel,
it was like having a stalker.’

She laughed,
expecting to hear Helen join in but there was just silence at the
other end of the phone. She waited.

‘Why do you put
up with it Bec? I mean after everything he’s done, why on earth do
you put up with it? You’ve got money now, why not leave him?’

It seemed the
popular topic of conversation at the moment, whether Rebecca should
leave her grumpy husband.

‘I can’t leave
him just because I’ve suddenly got some money Helen. It just
wouldn’t be right,’ explained Rebecca gently. ‘I know he’s a pain
but it’s a shock to the system suddenly having millions in your
bank account. He’s still getting used to it.’

‘I know Bec….
but on top of everything else! It’s not just the money, it’s.... oh
look I know we’re not supposed to talk about it but ever since he
dragged you off to Darlington I’ve been waiting for you to phone up
and tell me you’ve left him! Money or no money, you’ve put up with
so much no-one would blame you if you just walked away.’

When Daniel had
broken the news that they were moving to Darlington, Rebecca had
been so upset she literally couldn’t speak about it without crying.
In the one kind moment that Daniel had shown during the whole
episode he had asked her friends to let them just get on with it
and not discuss all the details with Rebecca. So despite the fact
that Helen’s eyes were almost as red as Rebecca’s own, she had put
a brave face on things, never analysing the move, never discussing
it in any detail with Rebecca right up until the day the removal
truck pulled out of the village and Rebecca stood shaking at the
passenger door of Daniel’s car. Helen had thrown her arms around
her friend’s neck and pressed her lips to her ear. ‘I’m here for
you Bec, if you want to come back I’m here for you,’ she had
whispered and then Rebecca had climbed in the car waving goodbye
numbly to Helen and Emma.

She had hated
Darlington with a passion but it wasn’t a reason why you left your
husband.

She sighed.
‘Helen, he’s my husband and I can’t just abandon him because I’ve
had some good luck. He deserves more than that.’

Helen snorted.
‘You’re too good for him Rebecca, always were!’

Rebecca paused
for a moment. ‘You see Helen, I didn’t tell him.’

‘What?’ Helen’s
puzzled voice echoed down the line. ‘Didn’t tell him what?’

‘I didn’t tell
him I’d won. I won weeks ago. I came to Leeds and collected the
money but I just - didn’t tell him. I bought the house and I didn’t
tell him. I bought a car and I didn’t tell him.’

She paused,
waiting for Helen to comment but there was nothing but a stunned
silence on the other end of the line.

‘He finally
found out because he - well he thought I was having an affair
because I was spending so much time in Leeds. He followed me and
found me at the house so I had to tell him everything.’

Still nothing
from Helen.

‘Helen, are you
still there?’

‘He thought you
were having an affair?’ whispered Helen. ‘He followed you to Leeds
because he thought you were having an affair? Oh my God!’

Rebecca sighed.
‘Well it’s the only conclusion he could come up with because I was
spending so much time in Leeds. But the point is that he had to
follow me here before I actually told him the news.’

‘Why didn’t you
tell him?’

Such a simple
question, if only there was a simple answer.

‘Oh Helen, I
don’t know.’ Rebecca passed a hand wearily over her face. She had
been trying to answer this for so long. ‘I really don’t know. It
was just so much fun, being in charge, deciding things for myself.
It all got out of hand and then Daniel had trouble at work, well he
didn’t think it was trouble he thought it was good news and he
needed it - the good news I mean. I suppose I thought it might help
him, change him back somehow into the Daniel he used to be but it
didn’t and it actually made things worse and then I still couldn’t
tell him….’

She realised
that she was rambling and stopped with a sigh. ‘I don’t know why I
didn’t tell him Helen but the fact is that I didn’t. He had to find
out and of course now there will always be that unspoken question,
was I ever going to tell him. He will always wonder.’

‘It’s a bit
hard to keep 15 million pounds a secret Bec. Especially from your
husband!’

Rebecca laughed
half-heartedly. ‘I know, and I truly was going to break the news
but I didn’t and now he doesn’t really trust me. I feel so guilty
Helen. It was an unforgivable thing to do.’

Helen’s voice
was quiet, serious. ‘Are you staying with him out of guilt Bec?
Because that really isn’t a good basis for a marriage you
know.’

Rebecca took
her time answering. Was she staying purely out of guilt? It was
undeniable that the happiest she had been in the last 5 years were
the weeks she had spent in Leeds without Daniel.

‘I don’t know,’
she whispered, ‘I really don’t know Helen.’

And in an echo
of the words whispered in her ear 5 years earlier Helen whispered
back. ‘I’m here for you Bec, if you want to come back, I’m here for
you.’

The
conversation continued in a somewhat strained way for a few more
minutes and eventfully Helen said goodbye and Rebecca replaced the
phone softly in its cradle.

She was
disturbed and restless. Winning money shouldn’t be so stressful she
thought, she should be happy, full of plans and dreams. She had
been exactly that until Daniel had become part of the experience.
How quickly it had all turned so sour.

She had no idea
where Daniel was. She didn’t actually care. She was exhausted from
the constant battles and she was determined that for once she would
get a say in the path their futures followed. But it was such hard
work. Maybe she would be better just giving him half of the money.
Let him make his own decisions. But with what she had already spent
on the house, what she planned to give the children and friends,
the money she wanted to put to one side for Gwen, if she divided
what was left it wouldn’t be enough for Daniel. It had been her
decision to buy the house, maybe she should sell it and insist that
the children were taken care of and then they split the rest. But
what about Parklands, what about saving the home Gwen had lived in
for so many years?

Rebecca groaned
and put her head in her hands. Why did it have to be so complicated
she thought? Why did she have to win the money in the first
place.

The next
morning Daniel stayed out of her way. Rebecca was tense and on
edge, waiting for the argument to begin to rage once more. But
Daniel stayed in the study, she even thought that she could hear
him whistling again. She felt certain he was expecting her to
submit. She had for the last 5 years. Daniel would decide and
Rebecca would accept. But this time it was different. Rebecca had
the upper hand and she needed to hang onto it as hard as she could.
No submission this time.

By lunch time
she was in desperate need of some fresh air and without saying
anything to Daniel, she slipped out and into her car, heading
aimlessly in the direction of Leeds. She didn’t need to shop, she
had done enough shopping for a lifetime over the last few weeks.
Sarah had lectures, and although she briefly considered visiting
Gwen she really didn’t want to go to Parklands. It would remind her
of the difficulties it faced, of the difficulties Rebecca faced.
She could help the residents of Parklands, she could help Gwen. She
just needed to make a decision.